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Adfree Cities
61–70 of 278 posts
Re: Adfree Cities
#62I lived in Grenoble (France) for 9 years and recently moved to another city.
I arrived shortly after big billboards (but by far not all advertising) was banned from the inner city in Grenoble, and the difference now is quite staggering. I don't get how people put up with this shit, I feel physically attacked every time I walk past big billboards.
Re: Adfree Cities
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly maybe we should just ban all advertising? Advertising is generally a zero sum game - there’s no meaningful difference if you spend 5M on ads and your competitors spend 5M on ads or you spend 0 and your competitors spend 0. There is a difference if you can spend 20M and your competitors can only spend 5M, but that’s one way larger companies kill competition.
Advertising isn't a zero sum game because not all ad dollars are spent equally. Two companies can spend $5M each and get different results. One main variable is, to what degree do their ads exploit and abuse human neurology? Advertising is a hostile action. It's parasitic. Almost all forms of advertising ought to be illegal in a reasonable society.
This is silly. If I remember a building company name when I want to make a change to my house, that's not abusing my neurology.
Re: Adfree Cities
#64I have personally gotten very aggressive at removing as many ads from my life as I can. I pay for the "premium" version of everything I can to remove ads (Spotify, YouTube, podcast subscriptions) and use adblocker aggressively. It's so much nicer than the alternative. There are two places where ads remain: 1) Social media where the ads are integrated and not blocked (Facebook, YouTube in-video promos) 2) Billboards i…
> #2, which is what the article is about, is unavoidable for me
Maybe one day you could wear AR goggles, and replace these ads by artworks?
Re: Adfree Cities
#65I have personally gotten very aggressive at removing as many ads from my life as I can. I pay for the "premium" version of everything I can to remove ads (Spotify, YouTube, podcast subscriptions) and use adblocker aggressively. It's so much nicer than the alternative. There are two places where ads remain: 1) Social media where the ads are integrated and not blocked (Facebook, YouTube in-video promos) 2) Billboards i…
I don’t know where you live, but what about all the mail spam — physical mail like catalogs and email advertising/marketing? And that half of what’s published by most journalistic outlets is now veiled ads? Dear Products, I know me better than you. I’ll come find you WHEN I need you. In the meantime, please just sit tight and stay out of my way. -Mr Consumption is Overrated
>what about all the mail spam — physical mail like catalogs and email advertising/marketing?
You can opt out of junk mail. Varies by area. Likely can be done by a "no junk" sticker, or by opting out via your postal service, or both. (A lot of fliers aren't distributed by postal service, but legally must obey no junk signs)
Email is trickier, but recently I've had success simply unsubscribing from absolutely everything with an unsubscribe link. I used to leave stuff in if it might be useful.
To my surprise I now receive very few junk emails per day.
>I know me better than you. I’ll come find you WHEN I need you. In the meantime, please just sit tight and stay out of my way.
All of the above said, ads actually work. It is possible of course they don't work on you, the reader of this comment. (Meaning anyone reading, not just the parent comment)
But ads really do work in boosting sales.
Re: Adfree Cities
#66I sincerely hope the UK doesn't get that monstrosity of an ad billboard - Sphere. In Las Vegas, it's basically right at home but in the UK it might be the most unbritish installation ever.
Re: Adfree Cities
#67This is totally double-edged. We get information from the environment as well.
If advertisements get forbidden they could easily get replaced by "good things to do" monopoly gobernments. Namely, propaganda.
Also, ads make life for many people.
I think regulation is enough. Forbiding would be harmful IMHO as a whole.
Re: Adfree Cities
#68The fact that you can advertise in cities is the reason that big tech doesn't capture 100% of profits in every single market. Advertising in cities, from billboards to flyers to stickers is the only way to reach people directly, without going through an intermediary big tech monopoly. I have a sense that the people most likely to support this thing also whine a lot about big tech, so this is just another bullet point…
Honestly maybe we should just ban all advertising? Advertising is generally a zero sum game - there’s no meaningful difference if you spend 5M on ads and your competitors spend 5M on ads or you spend 0 and your competitors spend 0. There is a difference if you can spend 20M and your competitors can only spend 5M, but that’s one way larger companies kill competition.
It's a negative sum game. I'd happily ban all advertising and replaced it with government managed services and products dictionary where suppliers would put their offers with prices.
It would also be a hub of technical information about the products and their reviews. Also information about companies operating on the market. Conduct, ownership structure, financial information, everything. Basically all the market information on a silver platter for every customer and business to take.
Re: Adfree Cities
#69I'll be the contrarian here and say that I actually like certain advertisements and billboards.
If you are stuck in traffic or on a bus in an ugly urban hellscape, is a billboard really that bad? I'm sorry, they are not going to plant trees in Times Square to replace the billboards. Even in their own press photos, they are showing several billboards that are covering up even uglier buildings!
Maybe you are an enlightened individual and want to put an end to consumerism and society. In the meantime I personally still buy things and shop. And billboards are a pretty unobtrusive and low-tech way of getting my intention. I still regularly learn about new restaurants or attractions or museum exhibits because of well placed billboards.
I certainly thing some billboard types and content and locations are bad (digital billboards - yuck). But that seems like an argument for good policy making from your local government rather than a blanket opposition to all forms.
Re: Adfree Cities
#70[deleted]